Augusta Amalia

Augusta Amalia Luisa of Bavaria was the daughter of Massimiliano I of Bavaria.

On the 14th January 1806 she married the Prince Eugenio of Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy from 1805 to 1814. Her husband, even though he had to go often to Milan, declared the Villa Reale in Monza as his own court. Also Amalia really appreciated this residence and preferred it with its wonderful gardens and later with its huge park rather than her residence in Milan. During the years of Eugenio and Amalia, the Viceroy’s and vice-Queen’s private apartments were situated on the Primo Piano Nobile of the central body in the Villa, to the right to the Big Hall. The vice-Queen and the Viceroy took part in the most important church services, did charity work, allowed Monzese to visit the gardens, but they never integrated with the citizenship (only formally), and their watchkeeping and service personnel was exclusively French. But rather than the Villa, Amalia preferred to live in Villa Mirabellino (now included in Monza Park), which became part of the Royal property in 1806 and was gave by Eugenio to the wife on the 21st June of the following year (her Saint’s day) with a new name: Villa Amalia. Here the vice-Queen often moved to host her friends.